Method of fabricating organic light emitting display device with passivation structure

ABSTRACT

A method of fabricating an organic light emitting display device is provided. First, an organic light emitting display unit having an organic luminous layer and a driving circuit is formed on a substrate. Then, a passivation structure covering the substrate and the display unit is formed. The passivation structure is composed of an organic/inorganic film. The organic/inorganic ratio of the organic/inorganic film decreases gradually during the fabricating process.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a division of applicant's earlier application, Ser.No. 10/707,933, filed Jan. 26, 2004, which is included herein byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a method of fabricating an organiclight emitting display device, and more particularly, to a method offabricating an organic light emitting display device with a passivationstructure.

2. Description of the Prior Art

The progress of science and technology has led to organic materialsbeing well applied to all kinds of electrical devices. For example,organic light-emitting displays (OLEDs), which are formed by usingorganic materials, have the advantages of simpler structures, excellentoperating temperature, high contrast, and a wide viewing angle, and havethe beneficial characteristics of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), such asrectification and luminosity, so as to be used extensively in the fieldof display devices. Since the OLED uses luminous devices formed oforganic materials to provide a light source, the OLED is very sensitiveto moisture. Once the organic light-emitting devices are exposed tomoisture, the cathode thereon may be oxidized and the interface oforganic compounds may peel. This leads to dark spots being generated inthe luminous devices, which deteriorates the brightness and the lifetimeof the display devices. As a result, the package material used topackage the electrical devices not only needs high anti-abrasiveness andthermal conductivity, but also requires low moisture permeability toprevent the organic materials from being exposed in the externalenvironment effectively and to improve the lifetime of the electricaldevices.

For example, in the conventional package process of display devices, asealing agent made of polymer materials is often used to combine thecontainer, which is composed of a metal or glass material, with thesubstrate, and a desiccant agent and dry nitrogen are filled into theempty region there between. However, this package structure can be onlyapplied to the display devices with metal or glass substrates, butcannot be used in packaging those with the flexible substrates. Inaddition, the metal container has disadvantages of having a heavyweight, and being oxidized easily. In the fabricating process, the metalcontainer also has disadvantages of pealing off from the glass materialseasily and having the requirement of a high degree of flatness. Theglass container has the disadvantages of having heavy weight, crackingeasily, and pealing off easily due to stress differences. Moreover, mostof the sealing agents composed of polymer materials lack adequateprotection from moisture. As a result, although the electrical devicesare packaged, the moisture of the external environment still permeatesinto the packaged device gradually and erodes the display devices so asto deteriorate the display effect and decrease the lifetime of thedisplay devices.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the metal or glasscontainer, a new passivation process that utilizes films to encapsulatethe protected devices is developed. Please refer to FIG. 1, which is across-sectional diagram of a passivation structure 16 disclosed in U.S.Pat. No. 5,811,177. As shown in FIG. 1, an OLED 10 mainly comprises asubstrate 12, a display unit 14 positioned on the substrate 12, and apassivation structure 16 covering the display unit 14 and the substrate12. The display unit 14 is composed of a plurality of pixels and furthercomprises a driving circuit (not shown) disposed on the substrate 12 fordriving the pixels to display. The passivation structure 16, which is amultiple film structure, comprises a metal layer 18, a buffer layer 20,a thermal coefficient matching layer 22, a low permeability layer 24,and a sealing layer 26 stacked on the display unit 14 in sequence forprotecting the display unit 14.

Furthermore, another passivation structure which utilizes a metal layer,inorganic materials and hydrophobic polymer materials is disclosed inU.S. Pat. No. 5,952,778. Another moisture-proof multi-layer structure isdisclosed in Chinese Taipei Patent 379,531 to improve theabove-mentioned problem. The structure includes a moisture-adsorbingresin layer, an adhesive layer, and a transparent resin layer, andcovers an electroluminescent device to prevent the electroluminescentdevice from moistening and oxidizing.

As mentioned above, although most inorganic materials have a superiorwater repelling ability, the inorganic materials have a significantdifference from the organic light emitting display unit, which is almostformed of organic materials, in the stress or the thermal expansioncoefficient. The adhesion between the inorganic materials and theorganic materials is also weak so that the inorganic materials areeasily peeled from the organic light emitting display unit. As a result,though the conventional passivation structures have different packagedesign or package materials, they typically utilize a polymer materialas a buffer layer and stack the buffer layers and the inorganicmaterials in a staggered layout on the display unit to form anmulti-layer passivation structure to prevent electrode materials ororganic materials in the display device from being eroded or oxidized bythe moisture and oxygen in the external environment. Normally, somemoisture sensitive electrical devices, such as the OLED, requires apassivation whose permeability is less than 0.05 g/m2 day. Thus, most ofthe conventional passivation structures are composed of more than fivestacked layers to meet the permeability requirement. However, althoughthe multi-layer structure can provide a better effect on moistureprotection, there is the disadvantage of the complicated fabricatingprocess, which leads to a high fabrication cost and long fabricatingtime.

Additionally, since the passivation structure 16 on the display unit isusually opaque, the organic light emitting display device has to use thetransparent substrate beneath to display images in a bottom emissionmode. When the size of the display device increases and the resolutionthereof improves, the display device operates in an active drivingmethod instead of the conventional passive driving method. In an activeorganic light emitting display device, each pixel needs an independentdriving circuit so that more electrical devices are required and morearea is occupied thereby. This leads to a decrease in the ratio oftransmitting area in each pixel. As a result, when light beams generatedfrom the organic light emitting display device pass downward through thetransparent substrate to display images, some light beams are blocked bythe driving circuit in each pixel so that the brightness of the organiclight emitting display device is reduced and the display performance istherefore deteriorated. Thus, it is important to develop a newpassivation structure and method thereof to solve the aforementionedproblem.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore a primary objective of the claimed invention to providea method of fabricating an organic light emitting display device tosolve the problem mentioned above.

In a preferred embodiment of the claimed invention, a method offabricating an organic light emitting display device is disclosed.First, an organic light emitting display unit is formed on a substrate.The organic light emitting display unit comprises an organic luminouslayer and a driving circuit disposed on the substrate. Then, apassivation structure is formed to cover the organic light emittingdisplay unit and the surface of the substrate. The passivation structureis formed of an organic/inorganic film. A latter formed part of theorganic/inorganic film has a lower organic/inorganic ratio than aformer.

It is an advantage of the claimed invention that the passivationstructure is formed of a single organic/inorganic film. Thus, thefabricating process can be simplified significantly. By adjusting theorganic/inorganic ratio properly, the passivation structure has thecharacteristics of the organic materials and the inorganic material atthe same time so as to attach on the display unit perfectly and has anexcellent water repelling ability to prevent the display unit beneathfrom being damaged by the moisture, oxygen, or other gases.

These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt becomeobvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading thefollowing detailed description of the preferred embodiment that isillustrated in the various figures and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a passivation structure according toprior art.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an organic light emitting displaydevice according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a local amplified diagram of the organic light emittingdisplay device shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a mix target.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Please refer to FIG. 2, which is a schematic diagram of an organic lightemitting display device 110 of a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention. As shown in FIG. 2, the organic light emitting display device110 comprises a substrate 112, an organic light emitting display unit114 positioned on the surface of the substrate 112, and a passivationlayer 116 covering the organic light emitting display unit 114 and thesubstrate 112 for preventing the organic light emitting display unit 114from being exposed to the external atmosphere.

Please refer to FIG. 3, which is an enlarged view showing the layerstructure of the organic light emitting display device 110. As shown inFIG. 3, the organic light emitting display unit 114 is composed of aplurality of pixels. Each pixel is formed by a multi-layer structure,comprising a first electrode layer 130, a light-emitting layer 132, ametal layer 134, a dielectric layer 136, and a second electrode layer138 stacked upon the substrate 112. In the preferred embodiment of thepresent invention, the substrate 112 is a glass substrate, a plasticsubstrate, or a metal substrate. The electrode layers 130 and 138 areusually composed of a transparent conductive material such as ITO orIZO. The metal layer 134 comprises alloys of Al—Mg, Al—Li, or Al—LiF.The light-emitting layer 132 is primarily formed of organic materials,such as an organic luminescent layer composed of conjugated polymers.The dielectric layer 136 comprises a silicon nitride layer, a siliconoxide layer, or a polymer layer. In addition, the organic light emittingdisplay unit 114 further comprises an active driving circuit (not shown)composed of a plurality of thin film transistors arranged in matrix fordriving the organic light emitting display device 110.

The passivation composite layer 116 is made of an organic/inorganiccomposite film formed by a physical vapor deposition (PVD) or chemicalvapor deposition (CVD) process. By reducing the ratio between thereactant sources of the organic compounds and the inorganic compoundscontinuously during the fabricating process, the organic/inorganic ratioof the formed organic/inorganic composite film is also decreasinggradually. In an embodiment of the present invention, a part of theorganic/inorganic film first formed has a organic/inorganic ratio higherthan that of a part of the organic/inorganic film formed subsequentlyand being farther from the organic light emitting display unit 114.

The method of fabricating the organic light emitting display device 110according to the present invention includes first forming an organiclight emitting display unit 114 on the substrate 112 and then forming apassivation composite layer 116 on the organic light emitting displayunit 114 and the substrate 112. Since the organic light emitting displayunit 114 can be formed by any conventional method know in the art. Themethod of fabricating the passivation composite layer 116 is detailed asfollowing.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a sputtering process with amix target is performed to form the passivation layer on the organiclight emitting display unit 114. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of themix target 150. As shown in FIG. 4, the mix target 150 comprises anorganic material 152 and an inorganic material 154 on the surface of themix target 150. Thus, the organic/inorganic ratio of the formedorganic/inorganic film can be controlled by changing the ratio betweenthe area of the organic material 152 and that of the inorganic material154 on the surface of the mix target 150. In an embodiment, theorganic/inorganic material ratio is gradually modified from 5:1 to 1:5.In an embodiment, the organic material 152 and the inorganic material154 on the surface of the mix target 150 are PTFE and silicon oxide,respectively. The formed organic/inorganic film is a SiOxCyHz compound.In the sputtering process, a mask is used to control the exposed area ofthe organic material 152 and the inorganic material 154. By changing therelative position between the mask and the mix target 150 properly, theexposed area of organic material 152 can be reduced and/or the exposedarea of inorganic material 154 can be increased so that theorganic/inorganic ratio of the formed organic/inorganic film can bechanged gradually along the thickness of the passivation layer. Theinner side of the passivation layer structure 116 adjacent to theorganic light emitting display unit 114 has a higher content of organicmaterial and therefore exhibits characteristics substantially similar tothose of the organic material, i.e. an excellent adhesion and a thermalexpansion coefficient and a stress matching with those of the organiclight emitting display unit 114. In contrast, the outer side of thepassivation layer structure 116 has a high content of inorganic materialand thereby exhibits a high water repelling ability characteristic ofinorganic materials.

The passivation layer 116 in the present invention can be also formedaccording to other methods. For example, trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) orhexamethyl disilazane (HMDS) can be used as the gas source to perform aplasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition with an oxygen plasma andthereby produce an organic/inorganic film formed of a SiOxCyHz compoundcovering the organic light emitting display unit 114 and the substrate112. In the same manner, different methods can be used to control theratio among x, y, and z in the fabricating process so that the SiOxCyHzcompound formed earlier has a higher organic/inorganic ratio, which hasa higher y and z, and the organic/inorganic ratio decreases gradually,in which y and z are smaller, in the latter fabrication.

In addition, although the SiOxCyHz compound is disclosed in the previousembodiment, the organic/inorganic film can also be composed of othermaterials, such as SiNxCyHz, or SiOwNxCyHz compounds according therequirement of products.

It is noted that the organic/inorganic film in the present invention notonly has the characteristics of organic materials and inorganicmaterials simultaneously but also has a high transmittance in a range of40 to 90% by using suitable materials and controlling the fabricatingparameter properly. Consequently, the organic light emitting displaydevice 110 can not only display in a bottom emission mode through theglass substrate 112 but also display in a top emission mode through thepassivation structure 116 composed of the high transmittanceorganic/inorganic film at the same time. Thus, the display performanceis not affected by the electrical devices positioned on the surface ofthe substrate 112 so as to overcome the problem in the prior art causedby a high density of electrical devices.

In contrast with the prior art, the passivation structure in the presentinvention is formed of an organic/inorganic film. By controlling theorganic/inorganic ratio of the organic/inorganic film in the fabricatingprocess, the passivation structure can have characteristics of bothorganic materials and inorganic materials. It means that the passivationstructure can have a stress and a thermal expansion coefficient matchingwith the organic light emitting display unit and have a high waterrepelling ability of the inorganic materials so as to provide anexcellent package performance, achieve the purpose of improving thedisplay performance, and lengthen the lifetime of the electricaldevices. In addition, by choosing suitable materials of theorganic/inorganic film, a high transmittance passivation structure canbe made. Thus, a top emission mode can be used in display images toovercome the low display performance problem in the prior art caused bythe high dense of electrical devices. Furthermore, comparing with theprior art passivation structure which is a multi-layer stackedstructure, the passivation structure is a single layer structure and canbe formed in a single process. Therefore, it not only solves the peelingproblem occurring in the interfaces between different materials, butalso simplifies the fabricating process, leading to lowering themanufacturing cost, reducing the fabricating time, and improving thecapacity thereby.

Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerousmodifications and alterations of the device and method may be made whileretaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the abovedisclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and boundsof the appended claims.

1. A method of fabricating an organic light emitting display device, themethod comprising: providing a substrate; forming an organic lightemitting unit on the substrate; and forming a passivation structure overthe organic light emitting unit and the substrate, wherein thepassivation structure is reacted by an organic material and an inorganicmaterial, and the ratio of the organic material to the inorganicmaterial is varying during the formation of the passivation structure.2. The method of claim 1, wherein forming the passivation structure isperformed by a sputtering process.
 3. The method of claim 1 whereinforming the passivation structure is performed by a chemical vapordeposition (CVD) process.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the chemicalvapor deposition is a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition process.5. The method of claim 3 wherein the chemical vapor deposition processuses reacting gases, in which the ratio of the organic material to theinorganic material decreases gradually to make a later formed part ofthe passivation structure having a lower organic/inorganic ratio thanthat of an earlier formed part of the passivation structure.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein the reacting gases of the chemical vapordeposition process comprise trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) or hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS).
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the organicmaterial includes PTFE.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the inorganicmaterial includes silicon oxide.
 9. A method of fabricating an organiclight emitting display device, the method comprising: forming an organiclight emitting unit over a substrate; and forming a passivationstructure including an organic material and an inorganic material overthe organic light emitting unit, wherein the passivation structure has avaried organic/inorganic ratio and the organic/inorganic ratio isdetermined by a mix target.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein formingthe passivation structure is performed by a chemical vapor depositionprocess.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the chemical vapordeposition is a plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition.
 12. Themethod of claim 9, wherein forming the passivation structure isperformed by a sputtering process.
 13. The method of claim 12, whereinthe mix target, which comprises the inorganic material and the organicmaterial in the surface of the mix target, is used as a sputteringtarget in the sputtering process to form the passivation structure. 14.The method of claim 10, wherein the chemical vapor deposition processuses reacting gases comprising trimethylchlorosilane (TMCS) orhexamethyl disilazane (HMDS).
 15. The method of claim 9, wherein theorganic material includes PTFE.
 16. The method of claim 9, wherein theinorganic material includes silicon oxide.
 17. The method of claim 9,wherein an earlier formed part of the passivation structure has a higherorganic/inorganic ratio than that of a later formed part of thepassivation structure.